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Triumphant Declaration
For the most part, Triumphant Declaration is a minor Sangheili agricultural colony. Automated harvesters reap crops, and local populations manage the still fragile ecosystem. A number of small military training bases are maintained on the planet, enough for recruitment and basic training, but it is hardly a military bastion. It is most notable for being subject to a massive invasion by rogue Kig-yar privateers in 2561, hoping that the pillage of the colony would recoup massive losses incurred at the Battle of Expansive Judgement - instead, it brought the devastating retribution of the Sangheili down upon the before-now ignored Kig-Yar Privateer Alliance. Description Triumphant Declaration is a small terrestrial planet, orbiting Lohktai at 3.5 Astronomical Units. It possesses a highly ferrous core, generating enough of an electromagnetic field to allow the planet to retain a significant atmosphere, made breathable by terraforming stations and transplanted flora. The planet is extremely tectonically active, with massive volcanic mountain ranges - geothermal stations make efficient use of this energy, converting it to a usable form for the Covenant inhabitants. Triumphant Declaration is orbited by two major sattelites, Renkin and Rentan. Renkin maintains a small Naval refuel and resupply station, as well as a number of smaller enclosed mining settlements. Rentan is uninhabitable, possessing little of enough worth to colonise in any case; in addition, Rentan's orbit is being gradually drawn closer to Triumphant Declaration, and is estimated to enter the atmosphere in approximately six million years time. Theoretically, a timed detonation of significant scale could either stabilise or destabilise its orbit further, though the Sangheili have been reluctant to act, given the neccessity of these weapons to the war effort. In addition to these, Triumphant Declaration is orbited by another fourteen smaller natural satellites, the remnants of a third moon destroyed approximately 105,000 years ago - exactly what destroyed it remains unknown, but it shattered the moon into more than a thousand large chunks, most of which either escaped the planet's gravity or crashed to the surface, creating massive craters, the largest of which were enclosed and pumped full of breathable atmosphere during the initial colonisation effort. These craters are rich in iridium, osmium, and other high-density materials valuable in Covenant construction. Prior to its discovery by the Covenant, the planet was largely barren and inhospitable, its atmosphere extremely inhospitable to most Covenant lifeforms and too hot for open movement. Centuries of conventional Sangheili terraforming rendered the planet at least habitable, though the colonists were still restricted to enclosed crater settlements. Terraforming equipment provided by the technologically advanced San'Shyuum quickened the terraforming process significantly, and today the planet supports a perfectly hospitable atmosphere, and supports an ecosystem transplanted from Sanghelios in order to supplement the terraforming equipment. The original settlements are used as mining sites, though they remain enclosed as a testament to the hardiness required of the colonists' ancestors. History Colonisation After the formation of the Covenant in 1552, Triumphant Declaration was one of many smaller Sangheili territories that came quickly into line with the new regime, pledging their allegiance to the Covenant, High Council and to the Hierarchs. Still only recently settled by the Sangheili, Prophet assistance helped to terraform the then-barren planet into a habitable ecosystem, and although it required delicate maintainence by the local population, it was able to turn Triumphant Declaration into a productive agricultural world, producing crops of vegetables, fruits and wheats to feed the rest of the Covenant. A small Unggoy population was established in 2155 to work the fields, and more colonists began migrating to the colony in hopes of making their living there. Disenfranchised former serfs from Sanghelios fiefdoms found it an especially attractive offer, given the centuries of autocratic hereditary rule by regional clans - Triumphant Declaration was still declared neutral territory from the internal conflicts that preceded the discovery of the San'Shyuum, and no clans had established themselves. Unique among Sangheili-occupied Covenant worlds, Triumphant Declaration gave rise to a unique Sangheili subculture that prided individual achievements only, deemphasising the history of an individuals family line and placing it upon the triumphs and failures of the individual, becoming a true meritocracy, without the stifling aristocracy of Sanghelios. The colony began to symbolise the unique Sangheili identity, and by 2490 a number of dissident groups had formed on the planet, advocating greater autonomy from Sanghelios. The Council of Masters, alarmed at what it percieved as a threat to the Covenant's integrity, ordered covert special operations teams to shut down these organisations in 2524 - the Purge of Triumphant Declaration would become infamous later as the first case of unprovoked Covenant aggression against a dissident movement. During the rise of "heretic" activity in the early 2550's, it would become a rallying cry against the Covenant, and the Threshold Heretics would set up a small recruitment cell there - when the organisation collapsed, that cell disappeared, later reemerging during the Great Schism to support the newly seceded Sangheili Armed Forces. War of Vengeance But for the victory at Expansive Judgement, Triumphant Declaration may have escaped the notice of war historians entirely. Based among the asteroid belt near Gargarensis, a gas giant in the outer system, members of the Kig-Yar Privateer Alliance had set up semi-independent colonies and shipyards alongside the Blood Covenant. When the UNSC devastated the area in 2560, sending the gas refinery tumbling through the colonies and wiping out much of the nearby fleet, the remainder were forced to retreat through slipspace. Unfortunately, Kig-yar politics meant that their survival was only a temporary guarantee. Without any profit to show for their efforts, they could not afford to pay for repair and upkeep for their ships, pay or supplies for their crews, or even the fee for docking for more than a few months. Kig-yar society effectively made them pariahs, forcing the desperate Kig-yar privateers to try and remedy that situation. Seeing Triumphant Declaration as a relatively unarmed, unimportant, vulnerable and profitable endeavour, the survivors from Expansive Judgement invaded the colony in mid 2561, destroying a number of large population centers and pillaging the countryside, hoping to sell their ill-gotten gains for enough profit to reenter Kig-yar society. Unfortunately, they underestimated the Sangheili's fury. Still smoldering from the Blood Covenant's attempted invasion of Ketesh, the Sangheili response was swift and overwhelming. Dozens of legions of warriors made landfall, slaughtering the Kig-yar warriors, two fleets obliterated the orbiting ships in a massive and one-sided engagement, leaving few survivors. Worse still for the Kig-yar, it highlighted the threat they posed to Sangheili shipping interests - the Kig-yar had preyed on Sangheili emrchant shipping for years, but it had been tolerated in exchange for which the Kig-yar focussed most of their piracy on other factions, such as the New Covenant. The battle of Triumphant Declaration saw unanimous support among the Sangheili High Council for a campaign of extermination against the Kig-Yar Privateer Alliance, and the Fleet and Army were mobilised in the largest and swiftest naval expedition in Sangheili military history. Five hundred ships obliterated hundreds of Kig-yar colonies in their relentless purge of all Privateer Alliance bases and ships, millions of Kig-yar were slaughtered, and by the end the Kig-yar were actively seeking the Privateer Alliance themselves, hoping to forestall the Sangheili's vengeful wrath upon themselves. By 2564, the Privateer Alliance had collapsed - all thanks to the attack on Triumphant Declaration. Quotes *"That they thought we would overlook it is laughable - it may have been sparsely populated and ignored, but it was ours. They forgot that Sangheili do not think as Kig-yar do, in terms of greed and profit - our honour could never allow such a blow to go unpunished." *"It sounds a little like a Covenant version of Harvest. Except for the fact that this time, the attackers were the ones wiped out." *"The closest planet to Triumphant Declaration is more than ninety lightyears away - and while that may seem like nothing with Covenant slipspace technology, it is still not as close enough to secure Sangheili territory to be totally safe. Kig-yar have always been a threat here, but the attack by Jezh was like nothing we've seen since the Second Age of Conguest." Category:War of Vengeance